Toronto Blue Jays' dugout looks on during their 5-4 Game 7 loss. Though the team's clubhouse atmosphere is dismal, the team’s camaraderie is still intact.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Ernie Clement had been crying for nearly an hour early Sunday morning, still in his Blue Jays uniform long after his team had lost the World Series, when the crowd of media spilled into the team’s sombre clubhouse at Rogers Centre.
The Jays infielder, who had grown into a central figure in the club’s season, choked back more tears when the cameras surrounded him, as his teammates sat dazed at their lockers.
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Clement set a major-league record with 30 hits in one postseason, three of them in Saturday’s World Series Game 7, which the Blue Jays had just let slip to the Los Angeles Dodgers. But that didn’t make him feel any better.
“I don’t really care about it,” said Clement. “I just love these guys so much. I have so much fun coming to work every day and battling with these guys. We have so much to be proud of, even though it didn’t go our way. All I care about is just hanging with these guys for another couple hours.”
Blue Jays reflect on the team's gut-wrenching loss to Los Angeles in Game 7 of the World Series, the closest the team has come to winning the championship in more than 30 years.
The Canadian Press
Closer Jeff Hoffman was blaming himself after allowing the game-tying home run to Dodger Miguel Rojas in the ninth inning.
“It sucks. It was supposed to end differently,” Hoffman said. “I cost everybody in here a World Series ring.”
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Shane Bieber was still digesting the night, having entered the game out of the bullpen and thrown the pitch that Will Smith rocked over the wall for the game-winning homer in the 11th.
“I hung a slider, to a guy that hits sliders well, too well, and he was looking for it,” said a red-eyed Bieber. “I didn’t execute.”
The veteran starter in his first season with the Jays still couldn’t believe that a team so talent-rich and close-knit didn’t win it all.
“It doesn’t make too much sense right now,” Bieber said. “But I’m extremely grateful to be part of it.”
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had changed out of his uniform and was back in the jersey he wore to the park – that of Canadian Olympic hockey star Marie-Philip Poulin, arguably the country’s most clutch athlete.
“Feels a little bit sad, but I can’t feel any prouder of my teammates, of all the things we accomplished this year,” said Guerrero, through his interpreter.
He thought back on the moment Bo Bichette hit a go-ahead three-run homer early in the game, making Shohei Ohtani pay after he had intentionally walked Guerrero to get to Bichette.
“I enjoyed that home run more than him,” Guerrero said. “After I got that intentional walk, and seeing him hit the homer, it was unbelievable.”
The hallway just outside the Blue Jays clubhouse was full of the team’s family members. Kids jumped into their fathers’ arms and played with balloons. Wives and parents applauded as manager John Schneider made his way through the crowd to do a postgame press conference.
Dodger Will Smith jumps for joy after hitting a home run while Vladimir Guerrero Jr. watches.Nick Turchiaro/Reuters
The Jays never held team meetings this year. The team was so close, they were rarely needed. But Schneider addressed them after the season-ending loss.
“I am so proud of them, of the entire organization, really,” he said. “We have set a new expectation and a new standard here, and did it with a lot of hard work, did it with a lot of cohesiveness. And man, it’s tough to say bye to this group.”
The manager said he’d relive the team’s bases-loaded at-bats for a long time. He derided the pre-series narrative that held that the Jays were David and the Dodgers were Goliath. He gushed about how happy he’d been to see a Bichette homer. He waxed about how close the team’s spouses and kids had become with one another. He marveled over 41-year-old Max Scherzer. He congratulated the Dodgers and reflected on more than just this year’s epic World Series.
“It will hurt for a few days, a few weeks, when you’re that close,” Schneider said. “The positive person in me will take some time to digest it, and I’ll go back to Bo’s homer in Texas, George [Springer’s] on Canada Day. So many things I’ll go back to and be proud of.”
Jays fans say thank you to the Blue Jays players and they expect the team to be back in the World Series in 2026.